BrandonoBrien.com

Brandon O'Brien

Travel and Adventure Journal

I wanted a place to journal all my travels and adventures around the world. I always enjoy going back and reflecting on my past travels and getting to relive them through my words and photos.

You're reading posts tagged with garden. Return home.
Singapore - Day 12 - Rain at the Botanic Gardens

Singapore - Day 12 - Rain at the Botanic Gardens

Monday, December 8, 2014 @ 6:34 AM in 2014 Asia

Today was our last day in Singapore and we had done pretty much everything we wanted to. Our flight to Beijing was at 12:15am so we had a full day to spend. We were able to push the check out time at our hotel to 2pm so we could sleep in a little in the morning. We had some Kaya toast (toast with soft boiled eggs and extremely dark coffee) for breakfast. It's the traditional workers breakfast and was actually pretty good.

We did some research on Beijing and packed up then checked out and dropped our bags off at the front desk of the hotel. One thing that we hadn't done was to check out the Singapore Botanic Gardens. They were highly rated and it was a really nice day out (although probably the hottest and most humid of the trip). The gardens themselves were really nice. It was like a tropical version of Central Park in the middle of the city. Most of the park was free but we paid S$5 to go into the Orchid gardens. We were walking around for a while before some dark clouds started rolling in and a sudden extreme downpour opened up.

Fortunately we were pretty close to some shelters so we ducked under one with a bunch of other people and waited out the rain. The thunder and lightning started hitting really close by and it hit a so close a few times that we could feel the shockwave. It took about an hour and a half for the rain to die down enough that we wouldn't kill our electronics by venturing out into it.

We caught a bus back to the city and stopped at the Raffles hotel which is the hotel that invented the Singapore Sling which is a gin drink with a bunch of other flavorings and juices. Mike and I each got one but were pretty underwhelmed with it for being hyped up so much and being so expensive. All the sugar also got to our stomaches and made us a little queasy for a while afterwards.

We went into a foodcourt and I got some lunch to help settle my stomach. By now we had a couple hours to kill before we needed to be at the airport so we hung out at the hotel lobby for a while until we needed to catch the MRT to the airport.

The check-in process at the airport was easy enough and we had some time to wait around there before we could board. Rather than having one security checkpoint at the terminal each gate has its own security which made things take a little longer. Since our flight was going to be from 12:15am to 6:30am we both popped a sleeping pill and slept through pretty much the whole flight. I did wake up when they brought by dinner which ended up being some kind of chicken and rice noodles with a little salad and fruit.

Teaser photos:

Botanic Gardens in Singapore
Botanic Gardens in Singapore
Waterfall in Botanic Gardens
Waterfall in Botanic Gardens
Caught in a downpour
Caught in a downpour
Singapore Sling
Singapore Sling

View Entire Photo Gallery

Tags: travels2014, rain, singapore, gardens

Posted from: Singapore

Green Chile garden with shade box

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 @ 3:15 PM in Miscellaneous

The garden in my front yard has been hit or miss the last few years due to the amount of sun I get (hint: it's a lot). Rather than have another year of poor return from my garden I decided to build a sun shade out of 3/4" PVC pipe and some screen.

The cost of the materials was pretty cheap and it only took about a half hour to get it all put together. I also put some chicken wire around the garden to keep small animals out. This year rather than planting a big mix of vegetables I stuck with 6 Big Jim Green Chile plants. I'm really hoping that this fall I can roast a batch of my own green chile.

Teaser photos:

Shade box
Shade box
Garden
Garden

View Entire Photo Gallery

Tags: garden, green chile

Posted from: United States